The Marauding Seven - Year 1

The Marauding Seven - Year 1 (Ch. 2)

James was standing in front of a huge red steam engine. To most people it would have looked impressive, but James had seen it many times before. Both his parents had gone to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and so had his brother, who'd graduated last year. His best friend Sirius was standing next to him, his mouth wide open. It wasn't like he was Muggle-born - he'd heard all the stories, but being an only child he'd never actually been to Platform 9 ¾.

James, growing bored with looking at the train, and having already stowed his luggage in a compartment near the end of the train was standing on his tiptoes looking for Remus, a boy he and Sirius had met in Diagon Alley, in front of Zonko's. He finally concluded that it was no good, even standing on his tiptoes he only just came up to Sirius' chin. It would be much smarter to get him to look for Remus.

"Sirius."

"Sirius!"

"Sirius!!!"

"SIRIUS!"

"Huh? What?"

"Get your stuff on the train. I need you to look for Remus," said James, slightly impatiently. To him, height was a touchy subject.

"No need. I'm here," came a voice from behind them.

"Remus! Hi!" said James. "I was just gonna get Sirius to look for you!"

"I know," replie Remus. "I was standing right behind you."

"Let's get your stuff on the train then. By the way - what do you think of it?" asked Sirius.

"The train?"

"Yeah."

"It's alright. Pretty cool I suppose."

"Sirius was immobile for ten minutes staring at it!" teased James.

"I was not!" shouted Sirius, blushing. "Maybe five."

"Let's get this stuff on the train then - we're at the back!" said James.

"Whoa."

"What, Sirius?"

"Who is she?" Remus and James followed Sirius' line of sight. Sure enough, standing alone with her trunk looking round was a gorgeous girl with long, shiny red curls surrounding her pale face.

"I don't know, but I hope she's in my house!" yelped James.

"Calm down guys! She could have the personality of a bread stick," said the ever (slightly too) sensible Remus.

"Remus, Remus, Remus. We're just looking. We're not gonna get involved so what does it matter what her personality's like?" stated Sirius.

"Well I'm gonna go help her. She looks lost," said Remus.

"Hold up a minute! Cute girl at 2 o'clock. Another redhead."

"James!" said Remus, clearly exasperated as Sirius followed James' gaze.

Kate and Alex were getting worried. The train was due to leave soon, and they hadn't yet found a compartment, or Lily.

Finally, they staggered into the end compartment of the train. It was empty, but clearly occupied as two trunks were haphazardly stuffed in. The two girls figured the people wouldn't mind - there was more than enough room for five people (if they ever found Lily). Speaking of Lily, they'd better go see if they could find her. For a moment, Alex found herself wondering about the redhead in the Magical Menagerie. She sighed. Maybe once they'd found Lily they could go say hi. She'd looked like a first year.

Lily was not feeling good. She'd totally lost Kate and Alex, and now she had a gaggle of boys staring at her. Or past her. She figured it didn't matter much - either way she was in a bad mood. She shifted Periwinkle (her new owl) to her other arm. This cage was getting heavy.

"Lily!" A shout came from behind her. She turned round and saw Alex and Kate running towards her.

"We though we'd never find you!" exclaimed Kate. "Come on, let's put your stuff on the train so we can explore. We're sharing a compartment at the back."

"Who with? Anyone I know?"

"Lily - do you know anyone else?"

"Well...no."

"Neither do we - the people don't know we're there yet. We figured they wouldn't mind. There's more than enough space for five!" butted in Alex.

While the girls had been talking they'd made their way to the end compartment. Unfortunately, they hadn't told Lily that whoever was there before them had left their trunks rather messily right in front of the door. Lily fell over the trunk.

"Oww! Whose is this...? Oh. I should have known. Some idiot named James Potter. It would be a boy."

"Come on. Let's just shove it out of the way," said Kate, so the girls huffed and puffed until the boy's trunk, and Lily's were against the wall. Lily set Periwinkle onto a seat, next to Merlin (Kate's owl) and Tigger (Alex's owl). Then all three girls jumped out of the train.

"Ten to," remarked Alex, checking her watch. "We'll be leaving soon."

"We'd better look round quick then!" replied Kate cheerfully.

"Shall we go back to the compartment? We haven't got long," said James.

"Sure," agreed Remus, and the three boys trooped to the back of the train. The first sign all was not as it was left was that there was no need to clamber over James' trunk, which had been strategically placed in the messiest way possible.

"Hey, someone's messed with our stuff!" cried Sirius as he walked in.

"Actually, we messed with our stuff - they tidied it," Remus replied with a grin. Sirius just looked over his shoulder at him witheringly.

"Let's see who it is - their names are probably on the trunks," said James.

Remus bent over the trunk stashed nearest the window. About a few minutes of searching he found a name - "Kate Blankett," he said.

"Mine says err, Lily Evins? No, Evans. Lily Evans. She has bad handwriting for a girl," remarked James.

"Mine is...'Alex Lainsbury'." Sirius said. "Well - looks like we've got compartment-mates."

"Yeah," said James, "and there they are." At the door was the cute (but not gorgeous) redhead he'd seen earlier, as well as a blonde and a brown haired girl.

"Err, hi. I'm Alex," said the blonde, offering her hand to Remus, who happened to be nearest.

"Remus, Remus Lupin." He replied. "This is James Potter, the black haired one with glasses and Sirius Black is the other one."

"This is Kate Blankett," said Alex, indicating the brown haired girl, "and Lily Evans," pointing to the red haired girl with the curls, who was currently glaring at James like he'd tried to curse her. Alex was confused for a while until she remembered that James' trunk had been the one that bruised her knee. "Do you mind if we share the compartment? We couldn't find anymore that had enough space."

"Sure. I suppose," James said rather reluctantly.

"You sound happy about it," replied Lily scathingly. "We've done nothing to you. You trunk, however has hurt me. So don't you stand there and look like your - your -oh, I don't know. Just don't."

"Lily, sorry, but you should have been looking where you were going really," said James, his voice tighter and steelier than earlier.

"Alright, break it up!" said both Alex and Remus at the same time. They realised what they'd done and smiled at each other. At least Lily and James had stopped fighting. It was then that Kate (who'd been rather quiet) realised they'd left London.

"Hey guys! We're on our way!" at this even Lily dropped her 'fight face' and looked excited at the prospect of Hogwarts.

"Alright, Lily, I'm sorry for anything my trunk did to you, so can we forget this fight and start anew because it looks like Remus and Alex are getting to be friends and anyway we have a whole day on this train and it's not going to be much fun if we're shouting at each other." With that, James took a humungous breath and collapsed onto a seat.

"Okay, okay." Lily said quietly. "I'm sorry for snapping your head off James. Now can we change the subject?"

"Hey!" cried Sirius. "Do you girls like tricks?" he asked pulling a large bag of Zonko's products out of his trunk. "'Cause if you do, let's have some fun..."